The workshop was great! I managed to get far more, both theoretically and practically, than I did from the MBA course. Theory was supported by excellent case studies. A unique selection of professional knowledge and skills!

The workshop was great! I managed to get far more, both theoretically and practically, than I did from the MBA course. Theory was supported by excellent case studies. A unique selection of professional knowledge and skills! A separate word of thanks goes for the visits you helped arrange.

With my experience of market dealing in a few largest Russian banks, I am confident that the organisation of the dealing room, a trading and a brokering unit is very important. It's vital to be able to understand and to feel the spirit of the dealing room with its unique information and communications environment, the principles on which trading is based. All of that can only be understood and felt during the visits similar to those you arranged for us!

Shell Trading: an unrivaled opportunity to experience what is going on at the heart of an oil giant. The presentation was brilliant, and Shell's representatives were superb handling the difficult task of answering our questions. The explanations were detailed, and covered the principles of funding the trade desks, positions hedging, the structure of trading and how various departments interact. I'd like to emphasise again that this was not a theoretical speculation, this was a detailed overview of an operational trading department – and that's worth a lot!

Platts: I'd like to mention at once that this line of business is not in existence in Russia. The purpose of the meeting was to understand for whom the company operates, and how. Before visiting Platts we studied the materials on the company's website, shared information and opinions with our colleagues, trying to identify the company's goals and objectives. We prepared questions to Platts based on our own understanding of its role in the market. Following the results of the meeting, our perception had positively been very superficial and not entirely accurate.

The presentation covered the corporate philosophy, the Platts products and methodology. We were even shown how the Platts window works, and I finally realised what it was, who needed it and how market participants used it.

The company is developing constantly, introducing new technology, and even the official website did not always provide a clear and complete picture of the company, and some crucial information was lacking or incomplete.

Once again, I realised that it was better to talk face to face with the market professionals than try to solve a jigsaw puzzle from fragmented second hand information!